Yesterday, the media with breathless prose, announced that an anonymous source had leaked Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal platform for the Ontario election, one day ahead of schedule. I bet the Ontario Liberals were pleased, very pleased. For they had made their platform revelation a two-day affair.
It boggles the mind that there would be someone in the Liberal coterie, who held the party in such malice that they would attempt to undermine them by leaking their platform only one day ahead of schedule, on a Sunday, before Labour Day, when people are at the cottage, firing up their barbecues, and settling in for the non-existent CFL Labour Day classic. If they really wanted to undermine them, they would’ve leaked it when people were paying attention – not when people are on the last days of snatched vacation.
That was really the problem. The Progressive Conservatives under Tim Hudak had already announced their platform, while people were still at work, not yet checked out for the long weekend. The Liberals, for some reason, had decided to announce theirs on Labour Day. Perhaps it wasn’t ready beforehand, and perhaps they wanted to get it in before US President Obama’s televised newser on jobs. Their platform would be buried under anticipation of what he would be saying and then afterwards, what he said if they had released it later than Labour Day. So how to get people to pay attention to a one-day event on Labour Day? Leak it. And include in the leak an eyebrow-raising item on tax credits for hiring immigrants. And then tell the media that that’s nothing – their platform includes an even bigger item. Now everyone’s paying attention.
The Ontario PCs may think the Ontario Liberals are the Federal Liberals and can be out-strategized. I think Round One has just ended in a tie.
Comments